The idea for this book was conceived because of the reactions of a group of my [fifth-grade] students to a photograph of St. Therese the Little Flower. After making many references throughout the year to her and to her 'Little Way,' I brought to class a photo of St. Therese in her wheelchair. Comments ranged from 'Where are the roses?' to 'You mean she was real?'.. . Immediately I began to search for more photographs to 'prove' that the saints were real."

Modern Saints - Their Lives and Faces, Book One contains the life stories of 55 saints, beati and other holy people of the last 200 years, along with their pictures, most of which are actual photographs. These pictures alone make the book unique and an invaluable record of sanctity in our own time. Book One presents the lives of many Americans and of saints from the 19th and 20th centuries; many of these are already famous in the Catholic world. This amazing book will demonstrate the perpetual vitality of the Roman Catholic Church and will strongly convey the idea that there are surely people living today - perhaps right in our own midst - who will one day be canonized saints.